The temblor hit just after 7 a.m. Friday, centered about 35 miles (55 kilometers) southeast of Baracoa, near the easternmost tip of the island, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That is just 160 miles (255 kilometers) from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where a Jan. 12 quake destroyed much of the city and killed countless thousands.

"Yes we felt it. We felt it strong," said Maira Legra, whose son runs a home offering lodging to tourists in the colonial beach-side city of Baracoa. "There was no problem. I was in bed because it was early, but I didn't get up."

Thursday, February 11, 2010

ROME, FEB. 10, 2010 (Zenit.org).- There is hope that Cuba will become continuously more open to a free practice of religion, according to the nation's ambassador to the Holy See.

Eduardo Delgado Bermúdez told ZENIT the Castro government is willing to go forward with a growing number of concrete signs of openness, just as Benedict XVI is encouraging.

The Holy Father called for this openness in a December address upon receiving Delgado Bermúdez's credentials as the new Cuban envoy.

The envoy recalled to ZENIT that religious liberty is protected in the constitution. He further affirmed: "You ask me: will the Pope's hope be realized? I can say, categorically, yes, that the government of Cuba -- and I said this in my address [to the Pope], which was not personal, it was an address that I gave in the name of the Cuban government and was approved by the Cuban government -- is willing to continue forward as His Holiness expressed it."

One of those concrete signs of openness might be a greater Church presence in the media.

On recent visits to the island, both the Pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and the president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Archbishop Claudio Celli, urged this greater presence.

According to Delgado Bermúdez: "Access of the Catholic Church to the press has happened exactly as happened with the declaration of Christmas as a holiday, or as innumerable religious processions have been authorized within the law. Before there were very few in Cuba; now they have increased considerably.

"And at present the bishops have access to the national media, an access that the government offered them because the media, in Cuba, is state owned. I can tell you that on this there have been talks between the authorities of the local Church and the Cuban government, and facilities will continue to be given to increase this access. This is positive."

Better communication

In general, the envoy declared, Holy See-Cuban relations are increasingly positive. This year, formal relations will have existed for 75 years.

Delgado Bermúdez proposed that "today all subjects can be discussed between the Church in Cuba and the authorities in an atmosphere of respect, of positive, constructive communication, that is, at present there is no topic that could be a reason for confrontation. For me, this is the most important achievement."

Other signs of bettering relations, according to the ambassador, are the steps taken for a seminary in Havana.

"I believe that it is significant that some buildings that were in the power of the authorities for different reasons have been returned to the Church and others are in the process of being restored," he continued.

"We have many points in common with the Church," Delgado Bermúdez said. "The Church can play a positive role.

"The Church's help has been very important too when there have been natural catastrophes, cyclones; the Church has given important help, speedy and effective. I think this must be added to the best results."

USA-CUBA/TRADE* Drop due to Cuba's economic troubles* Unlikely that sales will increase this yearBy Esteban Israel

WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - U.S. food and agricultural exports to Cuba plunged 26 percent to $528 million in 2009 as the cash-strapped island scrambled to reduce its huge import bill, a New York-based trade group said on Wednesday.

The severe drop, from $710 million in 2008, broke a long trend of rising sales since the U.S. government authorized agriculture exports to the Communist-run island in 2000 in a break in the longstanding U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

"The decrease has nothing to do with U.S. law, regulation, or pricing. It's simply a consequence of Cuba being in troubling commercial and economic times," said John Kavulich, senior advisor at the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.

He said there "nothing to indicate" that 2010 exports would be any better than 2009.

Cuba has seen its foreign income severely reduced by the global recession, which cut revenues from nickel exports and tourism, the island's biggest money earners.

Major hurricanes that swept the island in 2008 further drained its resources.

President Raul Castro has taken several steps aimed at producing more food locally to reduce the need for imports.

Cuba imports about 70 percent of its food because of its inability to grow what it needs.

The $710 million value for 2008 exports was partly due to an increase in commodity prices, the trade council said.

Strict U.S. regulations require Cuba to pay cash in advance to U.S. producers, with no credit available.

In recent years the island has turned to friendlier governments offering flexible long-term financing, such as Brazil, China and Vietnam.

"They are turning to suppliers who don't mind waiting for their money," Kavulich said.

Venezuela is Cuba's top-political ally and number one trading partner. The U.S. comes fifth.

Still, U.S. exports to Cuba in 2009 made the island the 36th biggest market for American agricultural products, the council said.

Cuba imports from the U.S. last year included, among other things, frozen chickens, corn, wheat and soybeans. (Reporting by Esteban Israel; editing by Jeff Franks)

HAVANA -- Cuba has slashed food and agriculture imports from the United States - its largest food supplier despite decades of sour relations - as the communist government tightens its belt in the face of a crippling economic malaise.

Imports fell 26 percent in 2009 to $528 million, after peaking at $710 million the year before, according to a report Wednesday by the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Economic Trade Council, which provides nonpartisan commercial and economic information about the island and claims to have no position on policy.

"The decrease has nothing to do with U.S. regulations, U.S. law or U.S. policy," said John Kavulich, a senior policy analyst at the council. "It is a function of Cuba not having the resources."

Kavulich said Cuba has increasingly turned to other countries like Vietnam that will sell it lower-quality food and not ask for payment for as long as two years.

Despite the half-century feud across the Straits of Florida, the United States is the largest seller of food to Cuba: Food and agriculture products have been exempted from the 48-year embargo since 2000.

Cuba waited more than a year after that to start importing U.S. food - angered by a provision requiring it to pay cash upfront before delivery.

But a hurricane in late 2001 hurt food production and gave it little choice. Today, Cubans getting food from monthly ration books eat chicken from Arkansas and wheat from Nebraska. Upscale markets stock everything from Kellogg's cereal to Heinz ketchup to Oreo cookies - though the prices are exorbitant.

Imports from other major trading partners such as Venezuela, China and Spain are also down. Rodrigo Malmierca, the minister of foreign trade, said in November that trade during the first three quarters of 2009 was off 36 percent.

Cuba's economy has recently been hit by a triple-whammy of bad news: Three major hurricanes did more than $10 billion in damage in 2008, the global economic crisis dampened tourism profits and a drop in commodities prices hurt nickel sales for much of 2009.

President Raul Castro has tried to offset falling imports by increasing domestic agriculture production, turning over tens of thousands of hectares (acres) of fallow land to small farmers.

He has warned repeatedly that the government can no longer afford to spend so much subsidizing life on the island, and that Cubans must work harder and take more responsibility for their economic well-being.

The government controls well over 90 percent of the economy and heavily subsidizes all aspects of life while paying an average salary of about $20 a month. Cubans get free health care and education, and usually pay next-to-nothing for housing and utilities.

Havana has taken baby-steps toward changing that system, eliminating some staples from the ration book, dropping free lunches for workers at some state enterprises and trimming health and education spending.

Posted on Thursday, 02.11.10DEMOCRACY IN CUBAEurope might take another step backBY MARIFELI PEREZ-STABLEMarifeliPerez-Stable.com

Until June 30, Spain holds the presidency of the European Union. Madrid has always taken the lead on Cuba, and so it has been since the Socialists won the 2004 election. Under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain prodded the EU to lift sanctions imposed after the Black Spring of 2003. By March 2009, the EU had normalized relations with Havana.

After the Popular Party eked out the Socialists in 1996, Spain moved the EU to adopt the Common Position, laying out the objective of encouraging Cuba to launch a democratic transition, respect human rights and open the economy while rejecting ``coercive measures.''

Instead, the CP offers Havana incentives to mend its ways. Now Madrid hopes to persuade the EU to eliminate or dilute the Common Position.

Europeans may be Venus to the American Mars, but democracy and human rights lie at Europe's core. The EU takes the Universal Declarations literally: Human rights are ours no matter what our politics.

Rescinding the Common Position won't be easy. All EU members must agree to it, and there's resistance from Germany, Great Britain, Sweden and the Czech Republic. Last November German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Zapatero that the CP's fate was entirely in Cuba's hands. It'd be lifted only if Havana showed meaningful progress.

Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos has been the strongest advocate for shelving the Common Position. Yet, he recently told parliament that Madrid would ``confine itself to open a debate'' in the European Union, a far cry from the promise to lift the CP during his trip to Cuba last October. A few weeks later Zapatero told Der Spiegel that he favored ``an exigent dialogue'' with Havana. Some Spanish officials, moreover, don't like the idea of tying up Spain's EU presidency with the CP. Cuba is not exactly a top EU priority.

Cuba, nonetheless, struts around with an illusory sense of self-importance. Foreign ministry officials repeatedly say that negotiations with the European Union depend on ``the elimination of the interventionist and unilateral Common Position.'' Reality check: Cuba needs the EU, not the other way around.

Havana has generally conducted an efficacious foreign policy. Its relations with countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean are normal if not outright friendly. Last year, for example, Cuba sailed through its review in the U.N. Human Rights Council, thanks, in part, to the goodwill earned in the developing world.

To be sure, U.S. policy has also helped Havana insofar as the embargo musters wider international censure than the regime's ingrained violations of human rights.

Even so, Cuba is at a foreign-policy crossroads. Its cries of ``national sovereignty'' won't play well with the European Union. Would Cuban leaders accept a weakened Common Position? Unlikely. If the EU discards the CP, the next logical step would be an economic-cooperation agreement. Only all such EU agreements carry a democratic clause. In 1996, Brussels offered one and Havana sent the EU emissary packing.

In contrast, Vietnam accepted the democratic clause, taking in stride the occasional reprove on human rights and even making some changes. Hanoi also signed and ratified the U.N. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Cuba signed two years ago with no date in sight for ratification. Why the difference? Decades ago Vietnam put the economy and living standards at the center. Ordinary Vietnamese have greatly benefited while economic interests, not ideological crusades, guide foreign policy.

Cuba can't or won't do the same. Unlike Vietnam, Cuba offers little in terms of trade and investment. With Obama changing the tone and some substance of U.S. policy, railing against ``imperialism'' doesn't carry the same punch. Calling Obama an ``imperial and arrogant liar'' as Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez did late last year may win plaudits in Caracas but not in too many other quarters.

Cuban leaders themselves are, of course, the problem. Neither sticks nor carrots works with them. If Spain fails to have the CP lifted or if it succeeds and Havana again turns down European economic cooperation, then they win once more. Screaming from the barricades is what they do best no matter how dearly it costs the Cuban people in freedom and treasure.

Marifeli Pérez-Stable is a professor at Florida International University and Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington.

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a passionate defender and architect of legislation to strengthen the U.S. embargo against Cuba, announced Thursday he won't seek reelection to Congress.

The Miami Republican made the announcement at a news conference at Florida International University.

Diaz-Balart indicated last summer that he was interested in leaving the House, where he has served since 1992, saying he was ``seriously considering'' a request from Gov. Charlie Crist that he consider being appointed -- temporarily -- to the Senate.

Within minutes of Lincoln Diaz-Balart's announcement, his brother, Mario Diaz-Balart, launched a campaign to succeed him in the more Republican-leaning congressional district.

Mario Diaz-Balart called it a ``natural move,'' noting that he has represented -- at the state and federal level -- several of the communities in the district.

That move will open up Mario Diaz-Balart's seat. There's no clear front runner for that seat, but state Reps. David Rivera and Anitere Flores are running for a state Senate seat that is almost fully contained in the congressional district.

We had read and heard so much about Cuba's health system – one of the greatest successes of 'the Revolution' – and all of it good. More doctors per capita than even most western nations, health clinics in every neighbourhood, town, small village, health care free for all, and a world-renowned pharmaceutical industry.

On our first trip to Cuba, one of our friends was around seven months' pregnant. She'd been told her baby was breech, and would have to be delivered by Caesarean section. For her and her family, which included some medical practitioners, this was not just bad, but frightening news.

"The hospitals in Cuba do not have proper equipment," they told me. "You cannot count on things being clean. The material they use to stitch people up is often old, and falls apart. They often do not have the right drugs. They re-use disposable needles." Their list of concerns was long.

I agreed to examine the woman in the presence of her husband. By my palpation, the baby was indeed breech, but it seemed mobile, and small enough to turn. I asked her if her obstetrician had suggested she do any exercises to help the baby turn to a head-down position. "No, he just says I will have to have a Caesarean section."

I showed her the exercises, and was pleased to hear that at her next visit to the obstetrician he found that the baby had turned, and was now head down. She said that when she told him about the exercises he expressed surprise. He wanted to know who had told her about this, and what exactly she had done.

Before we left Cuba the family asked me to send some suture material, sterile gloves and needles and medications to prevent hemorrhage to them. These were the things they were concerned would not be available when the woman went, in labour, to the hospital. I sent the package, and they received it with no difficulty, and in time for the birth.

I was interested to talk with Cuban women about their childbirth experiences, and heard many stories. I was surprised by the number of women I talked to that had been delivered by Caesarean section – clearly the majority. They were all happy to show me their scars. All of them were vertical, from pubis to navel – the old 'classical' incision that is no longer used in the western world, primarily because once a woman's uterus has been cut in this way, she is at such risk in further deliveries that repeat Caesarean sections are the rule.

Apparently this is not the rule in Cuba. Women with vertical incisions do go on to have vaginal births. It would be interesting to know what the rate of uterine rupture is in these deliveries. Perhaps the Cubans know something we don't, or perhaps they are more willing to take these risks.

Just as disturbing as the vertical incisions these women had were the frequent signs of poor healing. Many of the scars were very wide and looked, even after many years, poorly healed. Several women spoke of having to go back to the hospital because their wounds had re-opened and/or become infected. Many had taken months to recover from their surgeries, and needed mothers, sisters, aunties and friends to look after their babies for them.

But most disturbing to me of all was how little Cuban women knew about their bodies, about health and care in pregnancy, and about labour and delivery. According to them, care during pregnancy consisted of being weighed, measured and given an ultra-sound – at every visit! All of them had had blood tests done, although most of them didn't know what they were for. (In fact, from discussions I had with a Cuban geneticist, I learned that Cuba tests pregnant women for most of the same parameters, including the risk of genetic disorders, that we do.)

Women went into labour and birth with a 'knowledge' based on stories they'd been told by other women – often dreadful stories. They were fearful and distrusting. Of those who'd had Caesarean sections, not one of them knew the reason why. All of them just said "because they told me my baby was in trouble."

There was little education about breast-feeding, and little overt support for it. I was saddened to see the number of women who were bottle-feeding their babies. And I was amazed, given Castro's hostility to western capitalism, to see that Nestles appeared to have the corner on the formula market in Cuba.

Although Cuban women do get a full year's paid maternity leave when they have a baby, many of them go back to work within the first few months. It's the only way to make ends even begin to meet. The baby is either left with a mother or sister, or placed in an 'infant circle,' which used to be provided as a service by the government, but which now must be paid for.

All this aside, the Cuban government does provide one maternity service that makes a lot of sense. This is the system of 'casas de mujeres,' or women's (maternity) homes, which are in every city and town in Cuba. Women who live at distance from hospital (no Cuban babies are intentionally delivered at home), or women who have a problem pregnancy that requires observation, are given beds in these homes. They are also given meals, and they can enjoy, if not the comfort of their families, at least the company of other women.

The 'casas de mujeres' are staffed by nurses who are able to monitor the womens' health, and take the women to hospital as and when needed. This may be one of the most important things that Cuba does to achieve its very low infant mortality rates – the lowest in South America and lower even than the rate in Canada – a very impressive achievement.

On our last visit to Cuba we met a fellow from Finland who had a truly awful throat infection. He had been to an international health clinic and been seen by a Cuban doctor. He'd been given a prescription for strong antibiotics, and a nurse had administered the first shot. Although he was a big and pretty tough-looking guy, he said the shot was extremely painful – a burning sensation that lasted long after the needle was withdrawn.

I looked at the medication. It was an antibiotic that's meant to be given intravenously, not intra-muscularly. I offered to give him the rest of his injections, but warned him that regardless of the technique of the puncturist, the shots were going to hurt.

I gave him five or six more shots. The clinic had provided him with enough disposable needles and syringes for each one. As a medical practitioner, I was concerned about safe disposal of the needles. We were all staying in a casa particular where one of the family members was a doctor. I asked her if she could help with the disposal of the needles. She said sure, I could just give them to her.

When I gave the used needles to her, she turned around and tossed them into an open waste basket in the corner of the room. The same room she shared with a couple of small children who, like most Cuban kids, were playing on the floor not a few feet from the waste basket. I wondered how needles were disposed of in Cuban hospitals and clinics... .

We frequently saw people with nasty open wounds and sores in Cuba. On a couple of occasions I asked the people if they'd been to a clinic to have the wound cleaned and dressed. The answer was either "yes, but they had no ointment and no bandages" or "no, they have nothing there."

On one occasion we were helping a group of carpenters with a community building project and one of the fellows managed to give himself a very deep gash to his finger. It looked like it was almost to the bone, and the last joint of his finger was bent at a sickening angle from the rest of it. I suggested he go to the local hospital to have it cleaned and sutured. He went, but came back with it looking just about the same. He reported that they had looked at it and washed it, but that they had no suture materials, no ointment, and no bandages available.

As we carry an antibiotic and antibacterial ointment with us, I asked him to come back to our room, where I would at least apply some of this, and cover the wound with a bandage. After applying a liberal glob of ointment to the wound, I used some gauze and a well-wrapped couple of band-aids to pull the finger-tip into alignment with the rest of his finger.

We saw him several days later. He ran over to show us his finger. It was healing very well. The cut was closed, and the finger was straight. I gave him another couple of band-aids to keep the finger protected as he worked. Wherever we went in that town from then on we were greeted with big smiles and hand-shakes. The story of the miraculous healing of the carpenter's finger had spread by Cuban 'telephone' – the fastest communication system in the world.

On another occasion we were walking near a pharmacy. A young man approached us and asked if we would give him the money to pay for a prescription he'd been given. In return, he offered to get us a prescription for anything we wanted. We asked him if he couldn't get his prescription for free. "No, nothing is 'free' here in Cuba. It doesn't cost much, but anyway I don't have the money."

As it turned out, the drug he needed didn't cost much at all, by our standards. But on his salary, $8 or $9 a month, even $2 was too much. We bought him the prescription.

We also always brought vitamins – especially vitamins C and B – for our Cuban friends when we came, as well as pain medications and specific remedies for colds, rheumatism, arthritis and varicose veins. And antibacterial and antibiotic ointments for cuts and wounds, creams for skin disorders. None of these things were easily available, or cheap enough for Cubans to buy.

At one of our bed and breakfast places, the woman's daughter had insulin-dependent diabetes. She had great difficulty controlling her diabetes not because she couldn't get the insulin – it was available. The problem was that the diabetes centre in central Havana, although it had the testing kits needed to determine one's blood-sugar level, almost never had any testing strips. The kits are useless without the strips.

So for the woman's daughter, as for other diabetics in the country, treatment of diabetes is based on guess-work. What do I think my blood-sugar level is? How much insulin do I think I need? This is a dangerous way to treat diabetes. And diabetes rates are reportedly high in Cuba, likely due to the low protein and high carbohydrate nature of the Cuban's limited diet.

On our last trip to Cuba we were told about Fidel's arrangement with Bolivia. Bolivians come to Cuba for eye surgery. Once it's done, they stay at one of the all-inclusive resort hotels to recover for a few days, or a week. The same hotels that are off-limits to Cubans.

We asked a few Cubans what they thought about the 'free' health care and hotel stays for Bolivians. They all expressed pride in Cuba's modern – and obviously superior – health care system, and in Cuba's generosity in providing this service 'free' to Bolivians. Only a couple of them seemed aware that the Cuban government was in fact being paid.

The Cuban government also has an arrangement with the Venezuelan government – doctors for oil. Cuban doctors, having received their education courtesy of the state, must pay it back by going to Venezuela for two years – or more – to work. This often results in the separation of families – mothers and fathers leaving husbands, wives, babies and children behind in Cuba as they go off to Venezuela for their tour of duty.

The Cuban doctor in Venezuela does get paid for his or her work – and very well by Cuban standards: around $50 a month. For their families, this is a tremendous benefit. The doctors can also, while they're in Venezuela, buy all sorts of things that are simply not available in Cuba: electronics, kitchen appliances and utensils, clothes, shoes, cosmetics, jewelry – and food, glorious food.

But regardless of the perqs, the Cuban doctor is indentured to the state. When he or she is 'invited' to go to Venezuela, it's an invitation that can hardly be refused. We met several doctors who had gone to Venezuela for more than one two-year stint. One of them had been away from their family for six years. The doctor was estranged from his wife, and hardly knew his own children, nor they him.

On our first trip I happened across a Cuban obsterician/gynecologist in a cafe in Havana. We started off talking about the cockatoo in a cage in the corner. It wasn't long before we were talking about maternity care in Cuba, his work in the hospital in Havana, and his family – his wife and two young girls. It was a pleasant chat. When it was time to part, he took my hand and said: "Please, I am wondering if you could give me some money. I do not get paid much for my work – not enough to support my family. Please, if you could help."

On a subsequent trip I had the good fortune to meet and share a meal with another Cuban obstetrician/gynecologist. We had a wide-ranging discussion, during which it became clear that although he had been fairly well trained, his knowledge was limited by the fact that he had had very limited access to modern obstetrical or gynecological texts. At the end of our conversation, the doctor said: "I do not ask you for money. I ask you for information. Please, if you can send me information. Here it is so difficult to get."

The doctor was unable to get any obstetrical or gynecological journals, and was permitted only one hour a week of internet access – and even that was restricted. He therefore had almost no way of keeping current with advances in his field, or of getting information about specific disorders, problems or issues he was encountering.

Although he was a bright and engaging fellow, I came to the conclusion that his education and training was so limited that he was really at what we would consider a novice level – a suitable assistant or apprentice to someone with more training and experience, but not someone who was equipped to manage complex cases on his own. But he is, of course, doing just this.

If you go to Cuba, take as many vitamins and medications with you as you can. In particular, take Vitamins C, B, and E and children's vitamins with iron; cold and flu remedies, throat lozenges and cough syrups; pain medications like Tylenol and Ibuprofen; specific pain relief for rheumatism and arthritis; antibiotic and antibacterial ointments; sterile gauze and band-aids. Tooth brushes, toothpaste and dental floss, razors and razor blades, tampons and minipads, soap and shampoo are also much appreciated items. And if anyone asks you to purchase their prescription for them, as the Nike ad says: 'just do it!'

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

New bishop of Cuba: 'Hers is a theology of hope'Marites N. Sisonstaff writerFeb 9, 2010Paul Feheley

In a service described as "full of life and energy," The Rev. Griselda Delgado del Carpio, 55, was consecrated on Feb. 7 as the new co-adjutor Bishop of the Episcopal Church of Cuba.

The pews at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Havana were packed as about 400 people – busloads from parishes where Bishop Delgado had served as priest – gathered for the four-hour service. Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, primate of The Episcopal Church, and Archbishop John Holder, the new primate of the Church of the Province of the West Indies, celebrated the Eucharist as members of the Metropolitan Council of Cuba. (The Council has overseen the Cuban church since it separated from The Episcopal Church in 1967 because of difficult relations between the governments of Cuba and the United States.)

Archbishop Hiltz, chief celebrant and chief consecrator in his capacity as Council chair, presided over parts of the Eucharist in Spanish. Archbishop Hiltz isn't fluent in Spanish, but "he worked very diligently on it in events leading up to the service," said Archdeacon Paul Feheley, the primate's principal secretary. "He spoke slowly and people had the printed text in front of them. I think there was a very deep appreciation of his willingness to try." Archbishop Hiltz' sermon was, however, delivered in English and Bishop Jefferts Schori, who speaks Spanish, acted as translator.

In his sermon, Archbishop Hiltz expressed confidence in Bishop Delgado's leadership. He recalled that when the Council asked Bishop Delgado if she would accept the appointment, she had replied, "I live for the witness of the Church in Cuba." He said that "as she has poured her heart and soul into her parish ministry, so we believe she will serve the diocese with deep love…She will encourage and support all of you in your ministries, lay and ordained. She will call you to prayer and to good works…"

Bishop Delgado was appointed by the Council after two special electoral synods held last year failed to elect a successor to Bishop Miguel Tamayo Zaldivar, who is retiring as interim bishop. She was chosen from a pool of candidates who were asked by the Council to submit written responses to a series of questions.

In her submission, Bishop Delgado spoke of the Spirit of God "blowing its fresh air" to renew Cuban vocation and witness to the Gospel, said Archbishop Hiltz. "Hers is a theology of hope grounded in the context of the church local," he said. "She speaks of the rebuilding of temples throughout Cuba – the restoration of churches and the growing of congregations through worship and service – through reading biblical texts, celebrating the Eucharist, sharing in prayer for the community and for the world, and then sharing food, providing clothing, and distributing medicines as any and all have need."

Bishop Delgado's consecration ceremony was steeped in symbolism. Her daughters Griselda and Marcela, and son, Lautaro, vested her with liturgical garments imbued with deep meaning. The stole had come all the way from Bishop Delgado's native Bolivia, which she had left at the height of military coups in the early '80s; the cope, mitre and pectoral cross were gifts from the Anglican Church of Canada and The Episcopal Church of the U.S. The Canadian gift was given in memory of Gail Virginia (Gini) Pollesel, wife of Archdeacon Michael Pollesel, general secretary of the Anglican Church of Canada, who was killed in a car accident on Dec. 27. The couple had visited the church in Cuba on many occasions, in Archdeacon Pollesel's capacity as Council representative to the diocese's annual synod.

The collection, which came from the service as well as contributions from parishes, was offered to Haiti, which is still reeling from a devastating earthquake that hit the capital, Port-au-Prince and neighbouring suburbs, on Jan. 12. Council members saw this gesture of solidarity as "evidence of Communion," said Archdeacon Feheley.

As she received the mitre, Archbishop Hiltz reminded Bishop Delgado that as servant leader, "the bishop is called to care for all the Churches." He described a bishop's ministry as one that brings "great joy" and "great pain." Joy comes when the church gathers "in times of celebration and new beginnings," and pain comes when there is "dissension and conflict among the faithful," he said. The challenge is "to address it, and to declare that we belong ultimately not to one party or another, but to Christ."

Archbishop Hiltz quoted the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams who said that one should be able to see in the bishop "the Christ who gathers the people, speaking words of welcome, forgiveness, healing, and peace."

A bishop must also have a commitment "to cherish diversity within unity," he added. "It is reflected in our willingness to come to the table respecting the range of theological perspectives our Anglican tradition has the capacity to embrace." It is also reflected "in the generosity of spirit and substance for relief in emergencies of a catastrophic nature such as we have seen in Haiti in recent weeks and in long-term commitments to the repair of the world through the Millennium Development Goals," he said.

A graduate of Cuba's Seminario Evangelico de Teologia, Bishop Delgado was ordained a priest in 1990. She worked at the parishes of San Juan Evangelista, Coliseo, San Felipe Diacono, Limonar, Santa Maria Virgen, and the missions at Cuatro Esquinas and Guachinango.

HAVANA – It's Cuba's twist on "you are what you drive": Here, you are your license plate.

A rainbow of colors and an alphabet soup of codes tell the discerning eye how important you are in the egalitarian revolution as you whiz by — your nationality, what you do for a living and often how high you rank at work.

Cuba's painstaking color-coding of license plates — a system copied from the former Soviet Union — is one way authorities have kept tabs on people and their vehicles for decades.

The government owns most cars. They have blue plates with letters and numbers that indicate when and where the vehicle can operate and whether the driver can use it for personal as well as professional reasons.

Inspectors wait along highways out of town and other high-traffic areas, stopping official cars to check their route sheets and to make sure they aren't being used for a jaunt to the beach.

Executives at government-run firms — who get caramel-colored plates — have more leeway. But even they may only be allowed to use their cars to get to and from work.

"It's a form of control," said Weichel Guera, a National Office of Statistics chauffeur who is assigned a government sedan that he can use only to ferry top officials during business hours. He and his Lada spend most of their time parked outside the statistics building.

In the Soviet Union, Cuba's benefactor in many regards, all plates were black and white, and the first two letters specified the province where the vehicle was registered. The third letter denoted either state or private ownership.

The Soviets also assigned numbers for embassy license plates based on a country's recognition of the Bolshevik Revolution: Plates for Britain — the first to accept the czar's ouster — are still 001.

In Cuba, the first letter in the license plate indicates which of 14 provinces the car hails from, such as "H" for Havana. The letter "K" means the car is privately owned — either by a person or by a foreign firm.

Military vehicles have mint-green, rear-only plates; olive-green plates are for vehicles issued by the Ministry of the Interior, including Fidel Castro's fleet of armored Mercedes 280s, which were built between 1982 and 1984.

Black plates are for foreign diplomats, who don't have to adhere to traffic laws. White-plated vehicles of Cuban government ministers or heads of state organizations also drive as if they have diplomatic immunity — though technically they don't.

The last three digits on diplomatic plates often denote the professional rank of the driver. So, if you're stuck behind a gray Mercedes with black license plate 179-004, that means the fourth most-important officer from the Russian embassy is likely behind the wheel.

"Everyone's supposed to be equal under socialism, but when a late-model sedan with black license plates roars down Quinta Avenida (Fifth Avenue) in Havana, the driver is saying, 'Look out, I'm a big shot,'" said Tracey Eaton, a U.S. journalist once posted in Havana who now writes the blog "Along the Malecon."

For years, officials' cars were Iron-Curtain imports, as Cubans were encouraged to drive Ladas or other boxy, smelly and slow models. Now many official sedans are imported from China or bought from Havana's Peugeot, Fiat and Mercedes dealerships, adding diversity to the white-plated fleet.

Red "provisional" plates allow vehicles to circulate while authorities sort out just what color tag they should get.

Most of the half-century-old American roadsters that create a moving museum along the island's potholed streets have yellow license plates, meaning they are vehicles owned by ordinary Cubans.

The holdovers from Detroit's chrome-and-tail-fin era are still prominent on the roads because Cubans with non-VIP jobs can buy and sell only cars manufactured before the Castros took power in 1959. Buying newer vehicles requires government permission — including justifying how you can afford a car when the communist state controls well over 90 percent of the economy and pays employees an average of about $20 a month.

"It's normal," insisted Leonardo Rodriguez, 49, whose faded, baby-blue 1957 Buick Special has yellow plates and a front grill wide enough for a family of five to picnic atop.

According to reports in the local Vietnamese media, Cuba will buy 400,000 MT of rice this year from Vietnam through its regular purchases with deferred payment, which is a drop of almost 11 % from last year.Vietnam Northern Food Corp, or Vinafood 1, will sell the grain with payment deferred for 1-� years; Deputy Chairman Pham Van Bay of the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) was quoted as saying by Thoi Bao Kinh Te Saigon Online newspaper.

Hanoi-based Vinafood 1, the country's second-largest rice exporter after Vinafood 2, has been assigned by the government to supply rice to Cuba under annual deals. Vietnam accounts for most of Cuba's annual rice imports.

At last week's Senate Intelligence committee hearing, top officials acknowledged that President Obama's campaign promise to drastically alter U.S. policy toward Cuba is meeting some significant roadblocks.

"Cuba has demonstrated few signs of wanting a closer relationship with the United States," DNI Adm. Dennis Blair said in his prepared remarks. "President Raúl Castro fears that rapid or significant economic change would undermine regime control and weaken the revolution, and his government shows no signs of easing his repression of political dissidents."

Despite some cooperation during the Haiti crisis, the State Department sees few signs that the Cuban government is genuinely interested in repairing relations, despite an encouraging start. Last April, the Obama administration made a series of small changes to America's Cuba policy, some related to family travel and remittances. The two sides held migration talks in July and discussed mail service in September. In October, Bisa Williams, then a deputy assistant secretary of state, traveled to Havana to hold talks on resuming direct mail service between the two countries.

But since the Williams visit, there hasn't been much good news to report, and Williams has moved on to be nominated for U.S. ambassador to Niger.

"Well, if you look at Cuba from November until now you'll see that they've had more of a strident tone and series of actions," a State Department official working on the issue told The Cable. "There were some improvements in terms of our ability to operate in Cuba and our interest section in Cuba ... we hope that the Cuban government will take positive measures of its own to improve the conditions for the Cuban people -- and there we haven't seen very much."

Advocates of engagement with the Castro regime criticize an administration policy they see as being based on "conditionality," waiting for the Cubans to respond to American overtures before taking further steps. That strategy is not likely to produce progress, they argue. But the official said the U.S. approach is not based on conditionality at all.

"What we said was that we hoped that there would be positive measures undertaken not because of what we were doing but because of the need to improve conditions, period. We've not said that if we do this, then you'll do that."

The official did mention some measures the Cuban government could take that would be viewed as positive signs by the U.S. side, such as lowering charges on remittances and increasing respect for religious freedom among Cuban citizens. But those are "suggestions" not "conditionalities," the official insisted.

The bottom line is that the Obama team hasn't seen any real steps by the Cuban government in response to the steps they've already taken and no further steps by the U.S. side are planned right now. Talks between the governments have stopped and planned talks on migration have yet to be scheduled.

Obama had also promised to reform the Cold War-era sanctions regime, but when asked why there is no drive to alter the underlying laws, administration officials point back to Congress, where a bipartisan group of lawmakers stands poised to obstruct any such effort.

Some of them, like Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and New Jersey Sen. Robert Mendendez, hail from areas with strong anti-Castro populations. Other opponents of lifting sanctions, such as Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-CT, have more ideological reasons.

The Obama team doesn't see anyone, however, willing to overcome such opposition and push hard for repealing sanctions. "The reality is that this administration is very much based on setting priorities and making sure they're going after the right priorities," the official said. "They're pretty busy, so taking on another issue like this where there is not a clear drive on the Hill, is a pretty substantial undertaking."

So the Cuba issue continues to be managed, but not radically rethought inside the administration. Day-to-day operations are run through the State Department's Cuba desk, which sits under the assistant secretary for Western hemisphere affairs, Arturo Valenzuela, and the deputy assistant secretary who manages Cuba issues, Julissa Reynoso.

Higher-level policy decisions are overseen by the senior director for the Western hemisphere at the National Security Council, Dan Rastrepo. When it comes to sanctions, Adam Szubin, the director for the Office of Foreign Assets Control at Treasury, is a key figure. The deputy assistant secretary for Western hemisphere affairs at the Pentagon is Frank Mora, and he handles defense-related issues.

Overall, the Obama team is still looking for ways to make incremental changes in the U.S. approach to Cuba, probably without the direct involvement or cooperation of the Cuban regime."The fact that we don't have anything to announce doesn't mean that everything has ground to a halt," the official said. "On the contrary, we are continuing to look for ways to advance our interests where it's going to be important to U.S. citizens. Again, our hope is that the Cuban government will respond to the needs of their own population."

* In Cuba, a girl's 15th birthday is a sacred, expensive rite of passage* Party often includes photo shoots and balls* Parents start saving at the birth of a daughter for the celebration* Even the economic downturn has eroded enthusiasm for the tradition

Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- A gaggle of photographers, relatives and fashion advisors traipse after Yuniesky Collazo as she twirls for the camera in a rented pink ball gown in one of Havana's picturesque plazas.

She is celebrating her quinceanera, or 15th birthday, a sacred rite of passage in Cuba and much of Latin America.

"I'm so emotional, you can imagine," she gushes as she steps into a horse-drawn carriage for the next shoot. "It's the most important moment of my life."

The elaborate festivities are also a drain on family finances, often costing more than a year's salary.

Yuniesky's parents say they opened a bank account as soon as she was born and have been saving ever since for this day.

"It was a big sacrifice," she admits. "They had to work hard to give this to me.

In Cuba, a girl's sweet 15 often starts with a photo and video shoot showing her transformation from teenage princess to a young adult.

If her family can afford it, she dons traditional dresses, lace gloves, parasols and tiaras - and poses in front of colonial churches or in the back of 1950s convertible cars.

And then she sheds most of those clothes for more risque portraits that might make some parents squirm. Some romp in the waves in a bikini while others don thigh-high boots and black leather.Video: Cubans go all out for sweet 15

And for the better off families, the big day ends with a dress ball more elaborate than a wedding.

"Parents, especially mothers, enjoy this day," says wardrobe assistant Daisy Gonzalez. "They make sacrifices. They want the best for their girls. One dress isn't enough, they want three or four or more."

A running joke explains it like this: In Cuba, you'll get married numerous times. But you only turn 15 once.

A blow-out quinceanera can set parents back $2,000, a fortune in a country where salaries average $20 a month.

The global economic crisis has taken its toll on Cuba. But it hasn't dampened enthusiasm for this beloved coming-of-age.

"All girls have this dream, to celebrate their 15th," says proud father Roman Gonzalez. "Whether they're poor or rich, they will celebrate it."

Photographer Enrique says his business hasn't been affected. Many families have been saving for years, and others receive money from relatives living abroad, he says.

"No matter what, parents are going to do it," he says. "One way or another, there's always a helping hand."

That wasn't always the case. During Cuba's worst financial crisis in the 1990s, known as the "Special Period", not only did parents scale back celebrations, many stopped having kids.

But Yuniesky's parents say even during those dark days, they managed to set a little money aside every month for their only daughter's sweet 15.

Cuba slow to ease its grip on shopkeepersBy Marc Frank in CamagüeyPublished: February 10 2010 02:00

Three years after Cuba's Rebel Youth newspaper published "The Big Old Swindle" - a scathing series calling for reform of a state-managed retail sector beset by poor management, corruption and abysmal service - debate is still raging over liberalisation. The authorities have yet to act.

Rumours abound in Havana that the state will soon cede control over its thousands of barber shops, cafeterias, bakeries and domestic appliance and car repair businesses, opting to regulate and tax rather than administer, along the lines of the Chinese or Vietnamese model.

Yet the state appears to be doing the opposite, remodelling and opening numerous restaurants, shops and other retail outlets in city after city.

Raúl Castro, president, has insisted that Cuba's Soviet-style command economy needs fixing. He has hinted that ways must be found to reform the retail sector since taking over from his ailing brother, Fidel Castro, two years ago.

"State companies must be efficient and so must have resources to be so. The rest should adapt to more adequate forms of property given the resources available," stated a report by the economy ministry last year soon after Mr Castro replaced the minister and his top deputies.

Mr Castro has been short on specifics. However, commentators, economists and analysts propose raising the small number of family businesses and allowing employees to form co-operatives like those long established in agriculture.

There is apparently fierce resistance within the ruling Communist party, especially in the provinces.

"Cuba is not Havana," a provincial-level party official in eastern Cuba quipped when asked to square the new government-run retail outlets with the idea that the state should get out of the sector.

Pressed, he conceded that the state did not need to run some services, such as every barber shop. But he opposed letting go of larger establishments, such as car repair shops.

"Most cars and trucks in this country are owned by the state," he said.

A mid-level party cadre who administered eateries in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba insisted the retail sector's poor performance was not systemic but subjective. Fixing it was just a matter of improving party discipline, she said.

Cuba's second city has opened more restaurants, bars, stores and other establishments during the past year than any other.

The administrator, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the province's new party leader, Lazaro Exposito Canto, had improved the sector. "Since his arrival the retail sector has been completely turned round. It is a matter of caring about the people and being demanding with subordinates," she said.

The debate has spilled into the pages of Granma, the Communist party daily, which has carried letters to the editor for and against reform. "We have to shake off the stereotype developed over many years that private property is always evil," González de la Cruz wrote in a recent edition.

"Property, state or private, is valid when it serves a social purpose," he said.

The opposing view was best expressed in Granma by Guerra González, another correspondent.

"The solution of creating new owners and co-operatives and making current employees into supposed collective owners [in the retail sector] will only lead to uncontrolled free competition and capitalism," he wrote, adding, "this would represent not only an economic step backward but a political, social and ideological one".

For the first time since all retail activity - right down to shoe-shine boys - was nationalised in the "revolutionary offensive" of 1968, licences are being handed out to food vendors in the interior who have played cat-and-mouse with police in city streets for decades, saving residents a long walk to state markets.

But that appears to be part of reform already under way in the agriculture sector, where decision-making and food distribution has been decentralised and state lands leased to more than 100,000 farmers.

Authorities, in an apparent concession to popular frustration, are also granting family farms and cooperatives permission to sell a part of what they produce directly using kiosks and horse and bicycle-drawn carts. But not a single state-run retail outlet has been handed over to employees as a co-operative, let alone privatised.FT.com / UK - Cuba slow to ease its grip on shopkeepers (10 February 2010)http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/afb28c50-15e3-11df-b65b-00144feab49a.html

MIAMI -- The U.S. government's official broadcasts to Cuba and the government-funded Voice of America are for the first time regularly sharing resources - a move officials hope will enhance both services and which could blunt longtime criticism of the Cuban broadcasts.

Some also question whether the move signals the beginning of the end for the controversial U.S. Office of Cuban Broadcasting.

Last week, the office's TV and Radio Marti services opened their studios to VOA's Spanish division to jointly produce a regular half-hour radio show. "A Fondo" or "In Depth" provides news and analysis from around the hemisphere. It was developed in part to target Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez has cracked down on opposition and independent media and frequently criticizes U.S. foreign policy.

"I am looking into this issue to ensure that this is an effort to maximize resources to expand U.S. coverage in the region and not a back door to reducing U.S. broadcasts to Cuba," U.S Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, told The Associated Press.

"If this reduces the capability of Radio and TV Marti, it would be another concession to the Cuban regime who fears the uncensored information these broadcasts offer," added the legislator, a Cuban-American and champion of the decades-old U.S. embargo of Cuba.

Miami-based Radio and TV Marti, the government's only foreign broadcasts based outside of Washington, have for years endured charges that the virulent, anti-communist tone of some of their programs was ineffective. Critics - particularly those who oppose Washington's Cuba policies - also question whether anyone on the island even watches the more expensive TV Marti. The Cuban government generally blocks it.

The association between the VOA and the Martis could help the latter's reputation, said Nicholas Cull, a University of Southern California professor who has studied the government's foreign broadcasts.

"My feeling is that Marti has had a checkered history, and that anything that can pull its output into line with the high journalistic standards of VOA would be for the good," he said.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., one of the Martis' most ardent critics, had a more cynical take.

"I think they realize they're on borrowed time with the Cuba project, so I think they're trying to merge it in as much as they can with Voice of America," he said.

Alberto Mascaro, a Miami native and former Office of Cuban Broadcasting executive, recently took the helm of VOA's Spanish-language service in Washington. He says the cooperation is not about politics but about the best use of resources.

"Miami being a gateway city, it's a place where we can glean information and guests that in Washington just may not be as accessible. It's a whole additional talent pool," said Mascaro, who hopes to serve as a bridge between the two broadcasts.

VOA has news stringers south of the U.S. border but no longer has any bureaus there - making the Miami studios all the more important as Washington seeks to counter increasing criticism from Chavez, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega.

Over the last year, the Marti studios have occasionally produced other shows for VOA and served as a training hub for its journalists from across the region. In recent weeks, VOA has also relied on Marti's Miami studios for much of its broadcasting to Haiti, using local Creole-speaking reporters from the area's large Haitian-American community.

Still, the change comes as the Office of Cuban Broadcasting faces budget cuts. Last year it was forced to lay off more than 20 staffers. While the larger VOA's 2011 budget request of $206.8 million is up slightly over previous years, Cuban broadcasting's request of $29.2 million is down about $4 million from 2007.

Mascaro insists both organizations adhere to the same standards and serve important but distinct missions. Marti provides a counterbalance to Cuba's tightly controlled, pro-government media.

"It's not trying to provide a pro-Castro perspective. They already get that - and only that," he said. VOA's job is to offer a broader spectrum of balanced news about the U.S. and the world, with politically and culturally relevant information for each region.

The two services differ on the technical side as well. Because the Cuba broadcasts are not welcome by the country's government, the U.S. must beam them directly into the island via shortwave, AM broadcasts and satellite. While VOA's broadcasts also use shortwave and satellite, and now with "Al Fondo," some AM, they rely more heavily on local affiliates.

Yet that may change, too. VOA's Spanish-language radio is carried by only a handful of affiliates in Venezuela, and its TV service by even fewer. Given Chavez's recent decision to take the opposition cable and satellite Radio Caracas Television International off the air, it could soon lose even those platforms. And that would make it all the more dependent on the same modes of transmission the Martis rely on.

Posted on Wednesday, 02.10.10CUBA | HUNGER STRIKECuban hunger striker's condition reportedly worseThe mother of a Cuban political prisoner on a hunger strike said her son's condition has worsened and that he has lost considerable weight.By JUAN O. TAMAYOjtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com

A Cuban political prisoner who has been on a hunger strike since December is ``worsening slowly'' despite a hospital's decision to feed him through intravenous tubes, relatives and others said Tuesday.

Orlando Zapata is ``skin and bones, his stomach is just a hole'' and he has bedsores on his legs, said his mother, Reina Luisa Tamayo. He has lost so much weight that nurses were not able to get the IV lines into his arms and are using veins on his neck instead.

``They are feeding him through the IVs because he continues to refuse to eat on his own, but his situation continues worsening slowly,'' said human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz in a telephone interview from Havana.

BRUTAL CONDITIONS

Zapata, 42, has been refusing to eat and drinking water only occasionally since December to protest the brutal conditions at his Kilo 7 prison in the eastern province of Camagüey, according to his mother. Prison guards beat him at least three times in the days before he launched the hunger strike, his mother said, and his back was ``tattooed with blows'' by the time he was transferred recently to the Amalia Simony hospital in Camagüey.

``The authorities tell us that he is stable, within the parameters of his grave condition,'' she told El Nuevo Herald in a phone interview, adding that on Tuesday she was given permission to visit him every day for several hours. She had last seen him on Saturday.

``I will continue in this struggle until the seas dry up,'' she declared to supporters in Miami. ``I hold the Cuban government and the organs of State Security responsible if anything happens to my son, or to one of the brothers who is supporting us.''

ARRESTED IN 2003

Zapata, a plumber and bricklayer and member of the Alternative Republican Movement National Civic Resistance Committee, was arrested in 2003 amid a harsh crackdown on dissidents, known as Cuba's Black Spring, that sentenced 75 government critics to long prison terms.

He was initially charged with contempt, public disorder and ``disobedience,'' and sentenced to three years.

But he was later convicted of other acts of defiance while in prison and now stands sentenced to a total of 36 years.

Amnesty International declared him a ``prisoner of conscience'' in 2003.

Zapata's case has sparked several street protests by government critics, including some in Camagüey last week during which police detained some 35 people for periods ranging from hours to several days.

Some of the detainees complained they were beaten during the round ups, and others used their cell phones to take photographs inside their crowded holding cells.

HAVANA, Cuba — Something unusual has been stirring lately in the pages of Granma, this country's largest newspaper and the official mouthpiece of the Cuban Communist Party.

Lacking commercial advertising and printed entirely in red and black ink, Granma typically carries eight tabloid-style pages devoted to fawning coverage of Cuba's top officials and the latest iniquities of Yankee imperialism. Its primary function is to promote the Cuban government, rather than cover it, offering an Orwellian chronicle of life on the island as a never-ending series of socialist triumphs.

But in recent months, Granma has become an unlikely forum for a debate that seems to portend much-expected reforms to Cuba's state-run economy.

A flurry of op-ed columns have appeared lately in the paper's "letters to the editor" section, staking out positions for and against something Cubans are calling "privatization" — small-scale liberalization measures that might allow more entrepreneurship and private business. At its roots, it is an argument over how to revive Cuba's anemic economy, which was already woefully inefficient and unproductive before the global recession hit.

Most surprising, at least for the pages of Granma, is that many of the editorials contain rather frank criticisms of Cuba's economic ills, which include petty corruption, the widespread theft of state goods and a low-wage system that pushes Cubans into black-market activity to make ends meet.

"What would it mean for the State to eliminate the ongoing farce of state-owned property?" asked one letter, signed by D. Gonzalez de la Cruz. Pilfering is so rife at state-run businesses that they're already being privatized, he argued.

"In our current situation, privatization is already happening" Gonzalez wrote. "Only instead of a rational and well-thought-out process, it's chaotic and perverse. What kind of social benefits do we get from state-run business and restaurants where the State pays the bills but the profits — obtained fraudulently and illegally — go into the pockets of the those who prey off the people and the State?"

The letters in Granma appear to be part of a broader re-examination of Cuban socialism called for in speeches by President Raul Castro, raising hopes and expectations among Cubans who struggle with constant shortages and a system that officially bans most forms of private commerce. Of course, the debates are bound by certain unspoken parameters, and do not contain calls for free-market capitalism nor any direct political criticism of Cuba's leaders.

Rather, they are framed as a discussion about the best way to save Cuban socialism and its vaunted social safety net from an underachieving economy choked by excessive centralization and bureaucracy.

"I'm concerned about the future of my country, and it worries me that some still blindly believe that the old economic model we have is perfect," wrote J. Gonzalez Fernandez in another Granma editorial, saying that he is a 28-year-old whose views are shared by "almost all young people."

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"We can't keep living in the past. We have to think about the present and future of our country," he wrote, adding that he believed "adjusting" socialism was needed to ensure its survival.

What's not clear is when economic reforms may be enacted, nor how extensive they may be. With frustrations running high, many insist changes can't wait. Even Cuba's Catholic Church weighed in last week, publishing an editorial written by priest and economist P. Boris Moreno, who warned of "socioeconomic collapse" if reforms aren't made.

And yet, if "privatization" is being floated in Granma and other official newspapers, does it indicate some package of liberalization measures have already been decided upon by the Castro government?

"I think these are changes that almost everyone supports, including many Communist Party militants, but I don't know when they may occur" said dissident economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe, who said he has been followed the debates "with great interest."

"Raul Castro raised a lot of expectations, and people are growing frustrated he hasn't done anything," he said.

Since Raul Castro officially took over Cuba's presidency from his elder brother in 2008, his government has enacted modest reforms to Cuba's agricultural sector, putting unproductive state land in the hands of private farmers and cooperatives. But many services and small businesses — from watch repair to fast-food restaurants to bakeries — remain in state hands.

And not everyone seems eager for that to change, as other editorials appearing in Granma have urged "not to give capitalism an inch."

"Now is not the time to create the conditions for the reintroduction of clever and treacherous capitalism into our homeland," wrote J.L. Valdes Carrasco, exhorting readers to work harder, produce more food, and "place absolute trust in the leaders of the Revolution," while calling on young people to "lead in the decisive stage of the Revolution," the term used on the island to refer to the Castros' socialist system.

One interesting feature of the Granma debates is that many of those who have submitted letters for and against economic reforms try to bolster their arguments by borrowing quotes from Fidel Castro's speeches. Gonzalez, the 28-year-old, cited Castro's words from a 2000 May Day speech in making his case: "Revolution is everything that should be changed."

That partisans on both sides would quote Castro may be a preview of the political debates likely to ensue once he, Raul, and their generation of Cuban leaders is gone, and younger Cubans are left to sort out the island's problems.

Staff photo by Matt Fields-Johnson/Chattanooga Times Free PressEdiee Perez, who immigrated from Cuba in 1959 and has been helping other refugees since 2005, hands Jose Noa Roque the keys to his new house in Chattanooga.

For more than 10 years, Jose Noa fought for human rights in Cuba, an activity that didn't sit well with the Cuban government.

So the only way to live in peace was to leave his island home, he said.

In 2005, he sought political asylum in the U.S. Embassy in Cuba and recently arrived with his wife and daughter in Chattanooga, the latest Cuban refugee family to make the Scenic City its new home.

"We felt happy and relieved when we touched American soil," Mr. Noa, 43, said in Spanish.

"You feel happy because you are free," added his wife Sandra Acosta in Spanish, sitting in their Southside apartment.

Working through the bureaucratic process to be allowed to leave Cuba took almost five years: three years to secure their first interview with the U.S government; another before their second interview when they were approved to come to America, and finally, another year to get a flight from Cuba.

"It's really bad because they tell you that you are going to leave but they don't say when. Meanwhile the Cuban government knows you are leaving," Ms. Acosta said.

During the last 10 years, the number of Cuban families settling in Chattanooga has grown significantly, according to other Cubans. And that number is expected to continue to grow.

Last year, 13 Cuban refugees resettled here with the help of Bridge Refugee Services, a local agency that helps resettle refugees from around the world. So far, six Cubans refugees have arrived this year, with 21 others are expected to come by the end of the year.

Ediee cqPerez, an interpreter who works with Bridge resettling Spanish speakers, primarily Cubans, estimates there are between 35 and 40 Cuban families in the Chattanooga area.

With the exception of a few who have moved to other states where they have relatives, most of them have decided to stay in Chattanooga, said Marina Peshterianu, office manager for Bridge.

"As years pass, I think more and more Cubans choose to come to the U.S. and try to rebuild their lives, not based on where they have relatives but where they will find jobs," Mrs. Peshterianu said.

Other Cuban arrivals in Chattanooga have been long-term U.S. residents who have moved from states such as Florida or New Jersey, where 80 percent of the foreign-born Cuban population lives, according to U.S. census data.

The story of Cuban immigrants has been a very Florida-specific story and continues to remain a very Floridaspecific story," said Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications for the Washington, D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute.

There are close to 1 million Cubans in the United States and more than 700,000 live in Florida, according to the Census American Community Survey of 2008.

But immigration is a network phenomenon, Ms. Mittelstadt said.

"As immigrants start moving beyond their traditional destinations and you have small numbers of them move to new locations, they spread the word back to their relatives and friends and associates, basically talking about the life they are living in a new community and the opportunities they have, whether it is economically or educationally," Ms. Mittelstadt added.

Haydee Perez-Parra moved to the Chattanooga area in 1998 from New York City to study at Southern Adventist University.

"I started with my undergraduate (degree) at Southern," said the 38-year-old clinical therapist. "I didn't think I was going to stay here but then I finished my master's and met my husband at school."

"Being a Cuban myself, I see it as a perfect place to introduce someone from another country into the American culture because Southerners are very friendly," she added.

After she moved to the area, her parents, siblings, friends and even her brothers-in-laws followed.

"I really promote the area," she said.

For Jose Noa and Sandra Acosta, the most important thing is for them to find jobs and be able to rebuild their lives, the couple said. It doesn't matter where.

"I wouldn't move to Miami — despite the large Cuban community — because there's a lot of unemployment," Ms. Acosta said. "If I'm coming to the United States to be able to work and change my life so my daughter can have an opportunity, what am I going to do in Miami?"

But if they can't find employment here, they say they are willing to move to wherever they need to.

Today's guest post is from the blog, Crossing the Barbed Wire, by Luis Felipe Rojas, a free and independent writer, journalist and poet from the town of San German in Holguin, Cuba.

They Are Killing Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a Black Cuban

The old saying that a lie always returns as a banner against the one who told it came to pass, and this time not in favor of the current Cuban regime.

The hoax that the revolutionary state of Fidel Castro ended racist practices falls apart before the case of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a Cuban political prisoner of the renowned Group of 75, arrested during the Black Spring of 2003, in the days when the world's attention was distracted by the American invasion of Iraq. Zapata was condemned to 25 years, and during the seven years he has been imprisoned he has been summarily tried on several occasions so that with the time added he is now sentenced to 47 years.

Now the authorities, acting together and in collusion with the courts and the attorney general of the republic, have handed down a new sentence that leaves him at 25 years again, but without credit for the seven he has already served. This, among other reasons, is why today he is on a hunger strike and is at the point of death in a room in the Amalia Simoni Hospital in Camaguey.

But ... who is Zapata? Why has he been subjected to such torture? Why should his punishment be so long?

Zapata Tamayo is a black Cuban and a front-line opponent of the Castro dictatorship -- clear enough reasons for him to be punished. He is a member of the illegal Alternative Republican Movement whose work focused on taking to the streets and explaining person-to-person about the atrocities of the Cuban military regime against its people. But for the Cuban government, all black people, supposedly, ought to pay homage to Fidel Castro, "the liberator of the black race, and the good master who came to free us blacks." And that was exactly the lesson that Zapata did not want to accept.

Since his incarceration he has led strong protests, which, although peaceful, were intolerable to the prison authorities, and for this he has suffered beatings, humiliation, prolonged solitary confinements, and has since been subject to the maximum prison severity in his first phase.

Before being transferred on December 3, 2009 from the Holguin provincial prison to another special regimen in the Kilo 8 prison in Camaguey he was subjected to a huge beating. He told his mother during a brief visit weeks after the punishment that they handcuffed him and beat him to bring him down; they struck him with an iron bar on the knee where the imprint is still visible. During the transfer he was stripped of his cold-weather clothes, food, water purifying implements and other utensils. Then they threw him in a punishment cell where he was kept without food until he had to be taken urgently to the nearest hospital where he was barely breathing.

On several occasions when they beat him, the guards yelled "black!" as if it they were spitting out an insult. They want to bring him down, but he is still standing proud of the color of his skin - he said- and firm in his ideas about true justice, freedom, and respect for the right of all Cubans to live a different life.

HAVANA — Cuba has released the last five of a group of 35 dissidents it arrested last week for demonstrating on behalf of a conscientious objector, a Cuban human rights group said.

"The last three dissidents that were jailed since Wednesday were freed on Sunday" and another two were released Friday and Saturday, Committee for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) director Elizardo Sanchez told AFP.

Cuban police arrested and jailed 35 political dissidents in the eastern city of Camaguey, when they were marching in support of Orlando Zapata, whom Amnesty International has declared a prisoner of conscience. He has been in prison since 2003.

The protesters were briefly jailed, then 30 were released.

The demonstrators were protesting "the cruel and inhuman treatment" of Zapata. The CCDHRN said it was concerned over Zapata's health, and called for his unconditional release.

In its January annual report, the group said that there are 201 political prisoners in Cuba.

Authorities on the communist island insist there are no political prisoners, but rather US-financed "mercenaries" jailed for threatening Cuban national security.

HANOI, Feb 9 - Cuba will buy 400,000 tonnes of rice this year from Vietnam through its regular purchases with deferred payment, a drop of 11 percent from 2009, a Vietnamese state-run newspaper reported.

Last year Cuba imported 449,950 tonnes of Vietnamese rice, worth $191 million. That was 7.6 percent of Vietnam's total rice exports last year, the food association's data showed, without giving comparative figures for 2008.

Hanoi-based Vinafood 1, the country's second-largest rice exporter after Vinafood 2, has been assigned by the government to supply rice to Cuba under annual deals. Vietnam accounts for most of Cuba's annual rice imports.

Vietnam pledged to help Cuba boost rice production in a cooperation deal signed by the two Communist allies during a visit last September by Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet.

The government has asked Vinafood 1, Vinafood 2 and the Vietnam Food Association to pursue high-volume contracts this year in order to boost exports of the grain.

Bay said in the report that Vietnam, the world's second-biggest rice exporter after Thailand, was expected to ship around 6 million tonnes of the grain this year, similar to last year.

Demand would come from Africa, the Philippines, Iraq, India and Indonesia, Bay said, without detailing volumes.

"If India and Indonesia buy rice, our exports will be promising," Bay said, adding that the two were likely to be in the market from the second half of the year.

He said Vietnam had an estimated 7.5 million tonnes of rice available for exports in 2010, including a record stock of 1 million tonnes carried over from last year.

The total included an estimated 3 million tonnes to be harvested from the current winter-spring crop, 2.5 million tonnes from the summer-autumn and third crops later in the year, as well as 1 million tonnes from Cambodia, Bay said.

Rice export contracts signed as of Jan. 31 totalled 2.37 million tonnes, 18 percent down from the same period last year, Bay said.

The food association oversees day-to-day rice production and exports from Vietnam, while the Agriculture Ministry is in charge of production and proposes the exportable quantity to be approved by the government.

Monday, February 8, 2010

CUBA has launched an ambitious project to surround urban areas with thousands of small farms in an effort to reverse the country's long agricultural decline and ease its chronic economic woes.The five-year plan calls for growing fruit and vegetables and raising livestock in four-mile-wide rings around 150 of Cuba's cities and towns, with the exception of the capital, Havana.

The island's Communist authorities hope such suburban farming will make food cheaper and more abundant, cut transportation costs, be less reliant on machinery and encourage urban dwellers to leave bureaucratic jobs for more productive labour.

But the government will continue to hold a monopoly on most aspects of food production and distribution, including its control of most of the land.

The pilot programme for the project is being conducted in the central city of Camaguey.

The deteriorating Venezuelan social and political situation is turning into an open national crisis that could accelerate Hugo Chavez's ouster from the presidency.

One of the sectors on the brink of total collapse is electricity, due to lack of the required investments during the last ten years. Although oil is plentiful in the country, the required thermo-electric plants that should have complemented the supply of hydroelectricity were not built, while the maintenance of existing ones was sorely neglected.

Faced with a growing crisis, Chavez has turned to the failed regime of the Castros' Cuba for advice.

Chavez has dismissed the cooperation of expert Venezuelan technicians because they are ideologically opposed to his regime. Instead of bringing the best of advisers and the most modern alternatives, he decided to call in Ramiro Valdes, a man who is no electricity expert and is much better known as a master of political repression during his years as Cuban Minister of the Interior.

The 76 year-old Ramiro Valdes arrived in Venezuela a few days ago. He bears the title of "Commander of the Cuban Revolution" since he is the only Cuban who was with the Castro brothers in the attack to the Moncada Barracks, in the landing of the Granma in Cuban soil and in the Sierra Maestra. During the 1960's and 1970's Valdes was Minister of the Interior and presided over the imprisonment, torture or deaths of some 70,000 Cuban dissenters. After being displaced from the ministry he reinvented himself as a technocrat, in charge of an industrial group of electronics. As such he has been recently readmitted into the power circles, this time as one of the three vice-presidents of the Cuban Cabinet, not to be confused with the vice-presidency of Cuba.

The presence of Valdes in Venezuela is the latest and probably one of the greatest blunders Chavez has committed. The Cuban brings no added value to the solution of the Venezuelan electricity crisis. His presence in a position of high responsibility increases the indignation felt by Venezuelans about the role played by Cubans in internal Venezuelan matters. He is seen as a symbol of the Cuban invasion of Venezuela made possible by Chavez's treason.

Cuba has nothing to offer Venezuela in the way of electrical technical expertise. In fact, the Cuban electricity sector depends almost exclusively on Venezuelan prodigality in the supply of highly subsidized liquid fuels. Cuban electricity generation is very inefficient, with very high costs and technical losses. Just as an example, Chile employs 3,200 people in the electricity sector but sells twice as much electricity than Cuba that employs 34,000 people.

Cuban electrical shortages are as frequent as those being currently experienced by Venezuela. Perhaps Chavez was thinking of this when he explained the presence of Mr. Valdes by saying that Cuba had "a lot of experience in electrical crises". That they have. But not in any way that Venezuela can profit from.

Gustavo Coronel is a petroleum geologist, author and public policy expert, who was elected to the Venezuelan Congress in 1998 before it was dissolved in 1999 following the election of Hugo Chavez as president.Coronel is currently designated as an "enemy" of the Chavez regime.Chavez's (Cuban) Electric Personality - HUMAN EVENTS (8 February 2010)http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=35494

SA students living in bad conditions in Cuba08 February 2010 - 13:21By Jacaranda 94.2 Newsteam

The Christian Democratic Party says government must improve living conditions of SA students in Cuba.

Government must intervene to improve the living conditions of South African students studying in Cuba, says the Christian Democratic Party.

South Africa has a constitutional duty towards its citizens abroad as we already saw with the damages the government now had to pay to a South African farmer as a result of South Africa's neglect to properly protect his assets in Zimbabwe," party leader Theunis Botha said in a statement.

The South African students in Cuba are from poor families, and are fully dependent on the government to protect their interests, he said.

Apparently, friendship with Cuba is more important than the interests of the students who have to live in these appalling conditions, he added.

"We realise that President Jacob Zuma's antics and the up-coming world cup tournament has resulted in the South African authorities now having their hands full, but we, however, again call on government to intervene."

Botha said his party understood that the problems were caused by the South African government being in arrears with paying their share of the tuition fees.

"According to reports the Cuban economy is on very shaky ground, and South Africa cannot expect that country to be a full time Santa Claus," he said.

Health students pleads to gov't from communist CubaMonday, 08 February 2010 12:43

The 50 Solomon Islands medical students currently studying in Cuba are pleading for assistance.

The students in a letter to Solomon Star said they have not received any allowance since June last year.

"We the 50 Medical Students are very concerned about our situation in which our Allowances were not paid on time and are still yet to be received," they said.

They said the situation is affecting them badly as six weeks of academic classes for 2010 has already started.

"The three responsible authorities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health and Medical Services and the Ministry of Education and Human Resources have to reconsider the time period of six months late payments to cater for a new semester and pay us completely."

"Furthermore when our money reaches us, it is normally very late and study materials and stationeries were never purchased during the course period.

They said that they were also concerned with the fact that a huge deduction has been imposed on their allowances.

"The Government pays us in US Currency which has to be converted to Euro Currency and later when it reaches us in Cuba we have to convert it to the Cuban Moneda Nacional and at the end, heavy deductions have been made.

"We kindly ask the responsible authorities to respond to our issues positively," the students said.

They said they want the Cuban scholarship award to be included in the Ministry Of Education System so that their allowances are paid on time rather than depending on Funds from Iran and Portugal.

"We have been raising our issues through relevant Government officials during their visits and we know that promises are not good to bank upon.

"We feel that two years of patience is enough and we want responsible authorities to listen to the plight.

"We heard of the US$100 000 dollars for 75 Solomon Islands Cuban Medical Students but we sincerely request the Government to solve our two semester outstanding allowances promptly.

"We are running out of patience and cannot believe visiting leaders who always made unworthy promises or sometimes excuses such as problems with Bank transfers and embargos imposed against Cuba.

"We ask our Parents and Guardians to help us with our situation. Few Government representatives who have visited us have experienced and know exactly what we have stated.

"We understand the Economic Crisis that our country went through however we want our outstanding allowances dealt with accordingly with on funds that were secured for it."